Sevenoaks Town 0 - 0 Three Bridges 1st

By Mark Beard

Bridges draw

It was a tribute to both sides that this was not the boring goalless draw that the scoreline often suggests. Both keepers had inspired afternoons with Sevenoaks officials even deciding that their man between the sticks, Ben Bridle-Card, was their Man of the Match.

James Shaw meanwhile looked comfortable all afternoon and crowned his performance with a penalty save after 58 minutes. His defence, well marshalled yet again by Joe Tennent, also looked solid for most of the game, although Oaks' midfielder Dan Parkinson was a constant threat from free kicks and other long range efforts.

Shaw held an early volley from veteran striker Adrian Stone and also scrambled away a Parkinson free kick, but Bridges settled on the 3G surface with Connor French proving a notable handful for the home defence.

Ibby Akanbi also looked dangerous at times and saw a good drive go just too high and Olu Olwatimikehin, who again worked tirelessly in midfield, had a decent effort blocked by an equally stubborn home defence.

Lauris Chin shot wide following a swift counter attack and, after a dazzling run, forced Shaw to a good low save, whilst Kyle De Silva's drive looked goalbound until Shaw once again intervened.

The second half saw Bridges quickly out of the blocks with French seeing a low drive comfortably held and another fine effort deflected for a corner, whilst Sevenoaks responded with Fraser Walker testing Shaw with another low drive.

Then came the unexpected penalty when Lee Hall's header from a corner was adjudged to have been turned away at the far post by his hand. Ainsley Everett hit his shot well enough but Shaw was equal to it with a good dive and save.

It was then the turn of Bridle-Card to show his goalkeeping skills. He pushed away a header from Antone Douglas before Tyrone Berry hit the rebound into the side net, but then made two brilliant blocks in the space of twenty seconds to deny Andrew Sesay and Akanbi.

Akanbi came close to breaking the deadlock as he cut inside but saw his shot go agonisingly an inch wide of the far post, and apart from another testing free kick by Parkinson, it was Bridges who looked more dangerous in the closing stages.

Douglas and Dean Gunner both had chances with headers, whilst in added time Berry couldn't quite make decent enough contact following an excellent cross from the right by Akanbi.

A decent enough point in the end though with teams below Bridges in the table all losing.